Leclerc has high expectations of the tire strategy chosen for the race

As in Bahrain, Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) dominated all his rivals to take pole position on the Red Bull Ring. The Monegasque, on the other hand, hopes this time not to experience the same outcome as during the event contested in the Middle East, where the mechanics failed him while a victory very logically held out his arms to him.

For this, we will have to resist tomorrow Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Max Verstappen (Red Bull), its two closest pursuers this Saturday at Spielberg. « The car was amazing, admits the former Sauber driver.

It is a great pleasure to drive this car to the limit. But we have to conclude tomorrow now. We changed the car a little bit between the two attempts in Q3. I knew it would be a matter of compromise for sector 1, but it wasn't bad, and I improved in sector 3 too, which was good. »

The Monegasque indicates that Scuderia Ferrari seems to have some solutions to the problems encountered by the SF90 in terms of pure performance. “The main problem in these last races was the front end, analyzes Leclerc. We didn't have enough front gear.

It's a little better this weekend, we tried different settings, and different set-up philosophies, and it seems to be a little better. That's not to say it's going to be a huge leap from other races. »

Lucid, Leclerc also believes that the difference in strategy regarding the choice of tires, with Scuderia Ferrari having achieved the Q2 times on soft tires unlike Mercedes which had chosen medium compounds, can be a serious advantage.

“As for what we tested in FP2, we are quite satisfied with the choice we made, continues the Ferrari driver. After the race simulations, the soft tires seem to behave well. The strategy is different from Red Bull and Mercedes, but only tomorrow will tell us if we were right or not. »